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Home , Anne Walmsley, Caribbean poetry, Edward Baugh, John Figueroa

Laurence A. Breiner October 2013

Department of English Boston University 236 Bay State Road Boston, MA 02215 (617) 358-2544 [email protected]

Boston College B.A. (English, summa cum laude) 1968 Yale University M.Phil. (Comparative Literature) 1971 Yale University Ph.D. ( " " ) 1973 Dissertation: The Development of a Language of Representation for Science: 1550-1650

Academic Positions 2004 -Visiting Professor, American Studies, University of Tokyo 2000- - Professor of English 1981-2000 - Associate Professor of English, with tenure 1980-81 - Fellow, National Endowment for the Humanities 1976-78 - Research Fellow, University of the West Indies, Mona () 1973-81 - Assistant Professor of English, Boston University 1972-73 - Instructor, Boston University Fall, 1971 - convener, "Introduction to Comparative Literature," Hall seminar in Yale's Branford College Spring, 1971 - teaching assistant, "Classical Comedy," Yale University

Grants and Fellowships Henderson Senior Fellow, Humanities Foundation, Boston University, 2010-2011 Grant-in-Aid, Folger Institute, March, 2001 Senior Fellow, Society of Fellows, Boston University, 1998-99 Rockefeller Fellow, Center for the Study of Black Literature and Culture, University of Pennsylvania, 1991-1992 Senior Fellow, Society of Fellows, Boston University, 1989-90 Seed grant, Boston University Graduate School, June 1988 ACLS Grant-in-Aid for research in Venice, 1984 National Endowment for the Humanities Grant, 1980-81 Joint Committee on Latin American Studies, ACLS/SSRC, 1976-77 Woodrow Wilson Fellow, 1968

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Laurence A. Breiner October 2013

Administrative Experience

Major Departmental Service: Associate Chairman, Department of English, 2013-14 Department Chair ad interim, 2007-08 Director of Graduate Studies, 1992-1995 Faculty Advisor, Undergraduate Literary Guild, 1992-1997 Associate Chairman, Department of English, 1984-1991 Faculty Advisor, Undergraduate English Majors Association, 1981-1984 Chair, Graduate Foreign Language Committee, 1982-84 Chair, Departmental Affairs Committee, 1974-75 regular service on departmental committees

College\University Service: University Appointments, Promotion and Tenure Committee, 2013-14 Martin Luther King Jr. Fellowship Committee, 2011 Search Committee for Director of African Studies, 2008-09 College APT Committee, 2008-10, Chair 2009-11 Humanities Curriculum Committee, 2004-2008. Chair, 2005-2006 University Promotion and Tenure Committee, 2001-02 Committee for Academic Standards, Graduate School, 2000-2003 Chair, Search for Director of the African-American Studies Program, 1995-1999 Chair, Dean's Committee on the Future of African-American Studies, Fall 1994-2003 College APT Committee, 1993-4 Faculty Council, Alternate Delegate, 1993-5 Nominating Committee, Spring 1991 Admissions Interviews for Accelerated Medical Program, 1987-90 Core Curriculum Coordinating Committee, Fall 1986 Chair, Core Curriculum Task Force on Oral and Written Expression, Fall 1986 APC Subcommittee on Curricular Reform, Spring-Summer 1986 Humanities Foundation Advisory Committee, 1986-1988 Academic Advisory Committee on Internship Programs, 1986-1990 Admission Review Board for Religion & Literature, Myth Studies, 1985-89 Modern British Studies Admissions Committee, 1985-1988 Sexual Harassment Committee, College of Liberal Arts, 1985-90 Academic Conduct Committee, College of Liberal Arts, 1982-89 Chair, Steering Committee, Program in Religion and Literature, 1982-83

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Laurence A. Breiner October 2013

Interdisciplinary Studies Steering Committee, Graduate School, 1981-87 Interdisciplinary Studies Curriculum, College of Liberal Arts, 1981-82

Other: Editorial Board, Journal of Commonwealth Literature, 1998-present Editorial Advisor, Journal of West Indian Literature, 1988-present Conference Committee, New Renaissance Conference, 1981. Associate Editor, Decade magazine, 1977-79

Publications Books: An Introduction to West Indian Poetry. Cambridge University Press, 1998. Black Yeats: Eric Roach and the Politics of Poetry. Peepal Tree, 2008. [In progress: “Orality and Decolonization in West Indian Poetry: The Chemistry of Presence”]

Chapters in Books: “Poetry of the Caribbean in English.” Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics. Ed. Roland Greene and Stephen Cushman. Princeton Univ. Press, 2012. 194-196. " on the Air: radio, poetry, and nationalism in the Anglophone Caribbean." Communities of the Air: Radio Century, Radio Culture, Ed. Susan Squier. Duke University Press, 2003. 93-108. “dereku warukoto no shi ni okeru kureooru kotoba [ in the Poetry of ].” kureooru no katachi. Eds. Yasuo Endo and Hideo Kimura. Tokyo University Press, 2002. 259-283. "Edward ." Concise Dictionary of World Literary Biography, vol. 3. Detroit: Bruccoli Clark Layman, 2000, . "The 1980s." West Indian Literature. Ed. Bruce King. : Macmillan, 1995. 76-88. "Edward Kamau Brathwaite." Twentieth-Century Caribbean and Black African Authors, Second Series. Dictionary of Literary Biography 125. Ed. Bernth Lindfors and Reinhard Sander. Detroit/London: Bruccoli Clark Layman/Gale, 1993. 8-28. "Early Drama." The Art of Derek Walcott. Ed. Stewart Brown. Poetry Wales Press, 1991. 69-81. "The Basilisk." Mythical and Fabulous Creatures. Ed. Malcolm South. Greenwood Press. Westport, CT, 1987. 113-122. "The Arabian Nights' Entertainments." Critical Survey of Short Fiction. Ed. F. MacGill. Salem Press. Pasadena, 1981. 2, 407-414.

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Laurence A. Breiner October 2013

"The Brothers Grimm." Ibid. 4, 1555-1562. "Ovid." Ibid. 6, 2025-2034. "Petronius." Ibid. 6, 2091-2097.

Articles: “Too Much History, or Not Enough.” Small Axe 38 (July 2012), 86-98. “Responsibility and Craft in the Poetry of Edward Baugh.” Journal of West Indian Literature 15: 1 & 2 (Nov., 2006), 60-73. “Laureate of Nowhere.” The Caribbean Review of Books 10 (Nov. 2006), 32-35. “A Casualty of Caribbean Decolonization: The Poet Eric Roach.” Pacific and American Studies 5 (Tokyo, 2005), 53-62. “Creole Language in the Poetry of Derek Walcott.” Callaloo 28:1 (Winter 2005), 29-41. “How Shall the History of West Indian Literature be Told?” Journal of West Indian Literature 11:1 (2002), 39-47 [actually 2003]. "'Mabrak': A Disappearing West Indian Classic?" Journal of Commonwealth Literature 34:1 (1999) 27-43. "The Half-Life of Performance Poetry." Journal of West Indian Literature 8:1&2 (1998), 20-30. "On the Road to the New Imperialism." Kunapipi (forthcoming). "The Caribbean: Laboratory for Cultural Studies". American Studies (Tokyo) 3 (March 1998), 111-121. "How to Behave on Paper". Journal of West Indian Literature 6:1 (July 1993) 1-10. (revised, expanded version of "Como comportarse...") "Como comportarse ante el papel: el debate ." La Torre 3:11(July-Sept.,1989) 473-82. "Lyric and Autobiography in West Indian Literature." Journal of West Indian Literature 3:1 (Jan. 1989) 3-15. "Italic Calvino: The Place of the Emperor in Invisible Cities." Modern Fiction Studies 34:4 (Winter 1988) 559-573. "History, Nature and People in the Poetry of Eric Roach." The Journal of Commonwealth Literature 23:1 (August, 1988) 43-60. "The Ambivalent Aesthetic of Eric Roach." Ariel 19:2 (April, 1988) 3-19. "Is There Still a West Indian Literature?" World Literature Written in English 26:1 (Spring, 1986) 140-50. "The English Bible in Jamaican Rastafarianism." The Journal of Religious Thought 42:2 (Fall/Winter, 1985/86). "Is There Still a West Indian Literature?" (abstract). Unity and Diversity in the Caribbean. Association of Caribbean Studies. Coral Gables, 1984. 45.

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Laurence A. Breiner October 2013

"Tradition, Society, the Figure of the Poet." Caribbean Quarterly 26:1&2 (May-June, 1980). 1-12. "Herbert's Cockatrice." Modern Philology 77:1 (August, 1979). 10-17. "The Career of the Cockatrice." Isis 70:251 (March, 1979). 30-47. "The Strategy of Representation in Bruno's De l'infinito." Yale Italian Studies 2:4 (Fall, 1978). 243-259. "Analogical Argument in Bruno's De l'infinito." Modern Language Notes 93:1 (January, 1978). 22-35. "The Generation of Metaphor in Thomas Browne." Modern Language Quarterly 38:3 (Sept., 1977). 261-275. "Music as Syntax in Kepler's Harmonice Mundi." The Centennial Review 21:1 (Winter, 1977). 87-104. "Environment for Learning." Humanities Magazine 27:3 (Spring, 1968). 32-39. "The Portrait as Portrait: An Iconology of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man." Humanities Magazine 27:1 (Winter, 1968). 40-56.

Reviews of: . I been there, sort of: New and Selected Poems. Dennis Scott. After-Image. Journal of West Indian Literature 17:2 (April, 2009), 65-69. New : An Anthology. Ed. Kei Miller. The Caribbean Writer 23 (2009), 239-242. Charles W. Pollard. New World Modernisms. Twentieth-Century Literature 51:1 (Spring 2005), 110-113. No Condition is Permanent: Nigerian Writing and the Struggle for Democracy. Ed. Holger Ehling and Claus-Peter Holste-von Mutius. The International Journal of African Historical Studies 36:2 (2003), 170-17. All Are Involved: The Art of Martin Carter. Ed. Stewart Brown. NWIG (Nieuwe West-Indische Gids) (77: 1 & 2 (2003), 190-92. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature, Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Nellie Y. McKay, eds. Bostonia (Summer 1998), 91-92. Four Poets from Peepal Tree Press (Abdur-Rahman Slade Hopkinson, Milton Vishnu Williams, , E. M. Roach). CRNLE Reviews Journal #1, 1994. 92-96. Anne Walmsley, The Caribbean Artists Movement 1966-1972: A Literary & Cultural History. CRNLE Reviews Journal #1, 1994. 85-87. Patrick Taylor, The Narrative of Liberation: Perspectives on Afro-, Popular Culture, and Politics. Modern Philology 88:3 (Feb., 1991) 356-59. Edward Baugh, A Tale from the Rainforest. Journal of West Indian Literature 4:1 (Jan., 1990) 59-62.

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Laurence A. Breiner October 2013

Edward Brathwaite, X/Self. Partisan Review (Spring 1989) 316-20. Lucinda Roy, Wailing the Dead to Sleep. Journal of West Indian Literature 2:2 (Oct., 1988) 54-57.

Poetry: “Llanto for Carlos Sandoval,” Commonweal 131:6 (March 26, 2004), 10. “Orpheus in Heaven,” Commonweal 131:5 (March 12 2004), 14. “Jason in China,” “Love’s Geography,” “Machu Picchu,” EnterText 1 (2000) [e-journal] "Figure and Ground," Agni 38 (1993), 103-4. "Pathological Love Poem" and "In the Salt Marsh," Ex Libris, 1992. "Scholar," Agni 34 (1991), 140-41. "Sonettina: At the Murano Glassworks," Paris Review 113 (1989). "In The Great Rift Valley," Partisan Review 56:3 (1989). "Travel, Things We Wish We Could Say," Ex Libris, 1990. "Unpacking the Paintings," Ex Libris, 1987. "I looked up love. . . ," Ex Libris, 1986.

Other Publications: “Crossing Shibuya.” Newsletter, University of Tokyo Center for Pacific and American Studies 5:1 (2004) 1-2. “The Other West Indian Poet” [1989]. Reprinted in The Critical Responses to Kamau Brathwaite. Ed. Emily Allen Williams (Greenwood Press), 2003. "Mustapha Matura", "Eric Roach," and "Lucinda Roy." Encyclopaedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English, second edition. Ed. Eugene Benson and L. W. Conolly (London: Routledge), 2003 [expanded revisions of 1994 entries]. "Edward Baugh," Contemporary Poets, seventh edition, ed. Thomas Riggs (Detroit: St. James Press, 2000), . "Summer Reading," Commonweal 127:12 (June 2000) 19-20. "Wayne Brown." Contemporary Poets, sixth edition, ed. Thomas Riggs (Detroit: St. James Press, 1995), . "Commonwealth Literature." Twentieth-Century Britain: An Encyclopedia, ed. F. M. Leventhal (New York: Garland Publishing, 1995), 173-74. "George Campbell", "Mustapha Matura", "Eric Roach," and "Lucinda Roy." Encyclopaedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English, ed. Eugene Benson and L. W. Conolly (London: Routledge, 1994), 183-84, 1003-4, 1370-71, 1384-85 respectively.

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Laurence A. Breiner October 2013

"Edward Brathwaite." Encyclopedia of World Literature in the 20th Century, vol. 5, ed. Steven Serafin, (Continuum, 1994). 85-86. "Notes on Dream on Monkey Mountain", (playbill article for Trinidad Theatre Workshop's production of the play). Huntington Theater, Boston (July, 1994). 10-11. "Drifting Towards a Nation: Matura's Trinidad" (1988 article, reprinted for a production of Matura's Playboy of the West Indies). Mitzi Newhouse Theatre, Lincoln Center, New York, (April, 1993). "Revisiting Trinidad" (playbill article for a production of Matura's Trinidad Sisters.) Arena Stage, Washington D.C. (March, 1992). "Drifting Towards a Nation: Matura's Trinidad" (playbill article for a production of Matura's Playboy of the West Indies.) Arena Stage, Washington D.C. (December, 1988). "Saint Martin." Caribbean: The Lesser Antilles (travel guide). APA Productions Ltd. Singapore, 1988. 127-136. Umberto Eco. "Casablanca: The Archetypes Hold a Reunion" (translation). Decade (October, 1978). 19-21.

Papers and Presentations: “Kendel Hippolyte: The History Poems.” Fifteenth Annual Eastern Caribbean Island Cultures Conference, University of the Virgin Islands, St. Thomas, V. I., Nov. 8, 2012. “Federation’s Tap Natch Poet.” West Indian Literature Conference, University of Miami, Oct. 12, 2012. “Not Just What But How: The Poetics of Politics.” West Indian Literature Conference, University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad, Oct. 14, 2011. “Literary Constructions of the Cosmopolitan.” Postcolonial Comopolitanisms, , May 24, 2011. “Jamaican ‘Public Poetry’: Local and TransAtlantic.” Inaugural Warwick-BU Atlantic World Conference, Boston University, March 25, 2011. “Towards a Natural History of the Sonnet.” Henderson Senior Fellows Seminar, Boston University, Dec. 8, 2010. “Another View of Africa from the Caribbean.” West Indian Literature Conference, University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica, April 30, 2010. “Walcott’s Ghosts.” Conference in Honour of Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott, University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad, Jan. 14, 2010. “Being There and Getting There.” Address to Phi Beta Kappa, Epsilon of , Dec. 2, 2009. “’Your Presence is Our Past’: Anglophone Caribbean Poets and Africa.“ Rodney Seminar, African Studies Program, Boston University, Nov. 2, 2009.

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Laurence A. Breiner October 2013

“A Calypsonian Negotiates Colonial Authority: Atilla and the Fyzabad Oil Strike (1937).” Eleventh Annual Eastern Caribbean Island Cultures Conference, Curaçao, Nov. 7, 2008. “Positioning Eric Roach.” West Indian Literature Conference, University of the West Indies (Barbados), Feb. 29, 2008. “‘Who’s Your Daddy? – Genealogies of Jamaican Performance Poetry.” West Indian Literature Conference, University of the West Indies (Barbados), Feb. 28, 2008. “Criticism ‘in a certain kind of way.’” University of Miami, April 13, 2007. “Jamaican Precursors of Orature Poetry.” University of Miami, April 12, 2007. “Imaginative Projections on Caribbean Space.” West Indian Literature Conference, Port of Spain, Trinidad, March 2, 2006. “Kamau Brathwaite and the Caribbean Voice.” Latin American Studies Seminar, Brandeis University, Oct. 7, 2005. “Trinidad Calypso: Public Art and Colonial Authority.” African American Studies Lecture Series, Boston University, Oct. 4, 2005. “Walcott’s Drama – The Japanese Connection.” West Indian Literature Conference, San Juan, April 2005. “Derek Walcott: The Caribbean Poet, his People, and his Audience.” Rikkyo University, Tokyo, Japan, July 10, 2004. “Taking Possession: Caribbean Imagination and Caribbean Space,” CPAS Seminar, University of Tokyo, June 30, 2004. “The Caribbean.” Hokkaido Bunkyu University, Sapporo, Japan, June 17, 2004. “Orality and the Poetry of Kendel Hippolyte.” Seventh Annual Eastern Caribbean Island Cultures Conference, Antigua, Nov. 6, 2003. “Yeats in Anglophone Caribbean Poetry – A Turn from America,” International American Studies Association Conference, Leiden (Netherlands), May 21, 2003. “Can We Read What They Say?: Jamaican Performance Poetry,” Buckham Lecture, University of Vermont, Burlington, Apr. 3, 2003. “Early Caribbean Women Poets,” University of Vermont, Apr. 2, 2003. “The Lineaments of Caribbean Criticism,” West Indian Literature Conference, Miami, March 20, 2003. “How Shall the History of West Indian Literature be Told?,” West Indian Literature Conference, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, Barbados, March 25, 2002. “Why Isn’t Eric Roach Famous?,” West Indian Literature Conference, University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad, March 2, 2001. “The Islands are Still in Between: Caribbean Literature and Postcolonial Studies,” University of , Rio Piedras, Feb. 2, 2001. "Negotiating Orality in Walcott's Poetry," Caribbean Studies Association, May 31, 2000, Gros Islet, St. Lucia.

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Laurence A. Breiner October 2013

Introduction for James Winn, "Dissonance," Lectures in Criticism, Boston University, Oct. 14, 1999. "Where is a text at home?: the problem for Jamaican performance poetry," 18th Annual West Indian Literature Conference, University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, PR, March 29, 1999. "Caribbean Voices on the Air", MLA National Convention, San Francisco, Dec. 27, 1998. "Kendel Hippolyte: Post-Oral Poet", International Conference on Caribbean Literature, Nassau, Bahamas, Nov. 4, 1998. "Placing Jamaican Performance Poetry", Lectures in Criticism Series, Boston University, Oct. 22, 1998. "Creolization in Anglophone Caribbean Cultures", American Studies Center, Tokyo University, Nov. 18, 1997. "Mapping Caribbean Literature", American Studies Center, Tokyo University, Nov. 17. 1997. "The Half-Life of Performance Poetry", West Indian Literature Conference, University of Miami, April 3, 1997. "Another Life from Another Latitude", Department of English, University of the West Indies, Mona (Jamaica), March , 1997. "Jamaican Rastafarianism", Department of Religion, Wellesley College, April 2, 1996 "The State of Caribbean Writings", keynote address, Caribbean Voices Conference, Bunker Hill Community College, Feb. 27, 1996. "Caribbean Space", Bowdoin College, April 27, 1995. "A Lizard, Two Typewriters, and a Man in China: On the Poetics of Political Violence", Faculty Colloquium, Boston University, April 7, 1993. "The Passing of the Gods in Brathwaite's Poetry", Kamau Brathwaite and the Caribbean Word (conference), Hostos Community College (CUNY), Oct. 24, 1992. "On the Road to the New Imperialism" Ninth ACLALS Conference, Kingston, Jamaica, August 14, 1992. "Voice/Print: Theory and Practice of Performance in Anglophone Caribbean Poetry", Rutgers University (New Brunswick), April 20, 1992. "Speech, Writing, and Song in West Indian Poetry", University of Pennsylvania, Dec. 3, 1991. "Cultures of Power in Peter Dale Scott's Coming to Jakarta", PCA/ACA Annual Meeting, San Antonio, Mar. 28, 1991. "Caribbean Criticism: Practice and Theory," MLA National Convention, Chicago, Dec. 30, 1990. Introduction for Mieke Bal, "The Ways of Narrative," Lectures in Criticism, Boston University, Nov. 7, 1990.

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Laurence A. Breiner October 2013

"The Lives of the (Lyric) Poets," Eighth Annual Conference on West Indian Literature, UWI Mona, Jamaica, May 18-21, 1988. "How to Behave on Paper: The Savacou Debate," 11th Encuentro Caribeno, Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, March, 1988. Moderator and commentator, Conference on Video Icons and Values, Boston University, Dec. 3-5, 1987. "What Has Become of Poetry?," Evergreen Lecture, Boston University, July 30, 1986. "Eric Roach on the Role of Caribbean Poetry," Seventh Annual Conference, Association of Caribbean Studies, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, July, 1985. "Is There Still a West Indian Literature?" (seminar), Anniversary Conference: UWI and Caribbean Identity, University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica, Feb. 1984. "Is There Still a West Indian Literature?" (paper), Fifth Annual Conference, Association of Caribbean Studies, Willemstad, Curacao, July, 1983. Commentator for John Worrall, "Hypotheses and Mr Newton," Boston Colloquium for the History of Science, Apr. 5, 1983. "Nothing Rhymes With `Orange'" (paper), MLA National Convention, Los Angeles, Dec. 1982. "Origins of Popular Theatre in the Third World" (chairman), MLA National Convention, Los Angeles, Dec., 1982. Commentator for D. P. Walker, "Spirits and Magic," Boston Colloquium for the History of Science, Oct. 27, 1981. "Masterpieces in Search of a Canon: West Indian Literature," MLA National Convention, Houston, Dec. 1980. "Reading and Re-citation," Purdue University, Apr. 7, 1980. "The Velocity of Lyric," Dept. of English Faculty Colloquium Series, Boston University, Mar. 24, 1980. "The Anxiety of Audience," Dept. of English Faculty Colloquium Series, Boston University, Mar. 14, 1978. "Edward Brathwaite and Derek Walcott: The Common Endeavor," University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica, Mar. 9, 1977. "North American Theory of Influence and the Situation of West Indian Poetry," Caribbean Literature Faculty Seminar, University of the West Indies, Mona, Mar. 4, 1977. "The American Idea of West Indian Literature," radio interview for Jamaica Broadcasting Co., broadcast Jan. 4, 1977. "Reading After the Movies," (public lecture) Cambridge Center for Adult Education, Oct. 14, 1975. "The Quadrivium in the Sixteenth Century," History, the Arts, and Letters Program, Yale, Winter, 1972.

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Laurence A. Breiner October 2013

Professional Organizations: Modern Language Association, Caribbean Studies Association, Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies

Language Competence: Latin, Greek, French, German, Italian

Teaching Experience

Proseminar for Majors in English Major Authors I (Genesis through Dante) British Literature I (Beowulf to Milton)

Survey of 17th and 18th Century English Literature Literature of the Seventeenth Century I (1603-1650) Literature of the Baroque The Jacobean Mind Music and Poetry The Sonnet English Drama 1590-1642

Readings in World Literature and Theory World English Drama (plays from Ireland, , South Africa, West Indies) New Lands, Old Gods (West African myth in literature of Africa and the Americas) Nigerian Literature Studies in West Indian Literature Caribbean Poetry Caribbean Fiction American Voyages (Columbus, Montaigne, Levi-Strauss, Shakespeare, Stevens, Defoe, Melville, Walcott, Brathwaite, Harris) African-American Poetry (Survey)

Fables and Tales Plotting The Tale: Approaches to Narrative Literary Types: Fiction Readings in Modern Literature

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